LPC License Requirements by State (LMHC, LPCC, LCPC)

An LPC license is the credential a state board issues to a professional counselor.

LPC stands for Licensed Professional Counselor, but not every state uses those letters: New York, Florida, Massachusetts and Washington license the Licensed Mental Health Counselor (LMHC), Kentucky and Minnesota the LPCC, Illinois and Maryland the LCPC, and North Carolina the LCMHC.

It is one profession under several names.

The letters do not always mark the same rung.

In Virginia, Pennsylvania and Alabama the LPC is the top counseling license.

In Illinois and Minnesota the LPC is the first license and the clinical license (the LCPC or LPCC) sits above it.

The full state-by-state decoder is LPC vs LMHC vs LPCC vs LCPC.

If you have not yet chosen between counseling, social work and marriage and family therapy, start with LCSW vs LPC vs LMFT.

Every state licensing board builds the counselor license from the same parts, in the same order.

The figures inside each step are set by your board and differ at the state line.

The associate stage is where most of the variation lives: titles include Associate Licensed Counselor (Alabama), Licensed Associate Counselor (New Jersey), LPC Associate (Texas), Resident in Counseling (Virginia), Provisional Licensed Professional Counselor (Louisiana) and Licensed Mental Health Counselor Associate (Washington).

How that associate-to-independent ladder works, and what counts as a supervised hour, is covered in associate vs. independently licensed.

The title alphabet across counseling, social work and MFT is in the pre-licensure titles guide.

There is no national number.

3,000 post-degree hours is the total you will see most often, but South Carolina asks for 1,500, Colorado 2,000, the District of Columbia 3,500 and Kentucky 4,000, and Virginia sets minimums instead of a total.

Here are thirteen states, each from its board's statute, rule or requirements page:

Six states have their own long-form guides: the Texas LPC, California LPCC, New York LMHC, Florida LMHC, Illinois LCPC and Ohio LPCC.

Every other state with a verified page is in the state picker at the top of this page.

Two details in the table change your timeline more than the total does.

A minimum time frame means working faster does not finish sooner, and a direct-contact floor means a job heavy on paperwork can leave you short.

How these totals turn into years is covered in how long it takes to get licensed as a therapist.

Boards set supervision two ways: a total and a rate.

Virginia requires one to four hours of supervision for every 40 hours of work.

The District of Columbia wants at least one hour per 35 hours worked.

Texas requires at least 4 hours a month, no more than half of it in a group, and New York requires supervision averaging one hour a week, in person, individual or group.

Supervision totals include 100 hours in Kentucky, Louisiana, North Carolina and Washington, 120 in South Carolina, 130 in Massachusetts, and 200 in Virginia and for the Minnesota LPCC.

A qualified supervisor is defined by the board, not the employer.

Some states issue a separate supervisor credential: Alabama's LPC-S requires five years of full-time practice as an Alabama LPC and at least 24 hours of approved supervisory training, and allows no more than five supervisees.

Louisiana's Board-Approved LPC Supervisor needs at least three years of post-licensure practice.

Virginia and Washington have no separate credential but set experience and training minimums.

Whether you can become one is covered in can an LPC supervise an associate?, and the cost side in who pays for clinical supervision.

Confirm that a prospective employer's supervisor meets your board's rule before your first hour.

Choosing a first therapist job that gets you licensed lists what to ask, and open mental health counselor jobs show which employers name their supervision arrangement.

The two national counseling exams are the National Counselor Examination (NCE) and the National Clinical Mental Health Counseling Examination (NCMHCE), both administered by the National Board for Certified Counselors (NBCC).

NBCC writes the exam; your state board decides which one it accepts and when you may sit it.

Many boards accept either, including Kentucky, Louisiana, South Carolina, Virginia and Washington.

Others take only one.

New York and Massachusetts require the NCMHCE, and New York states that the NCE is not acceptable.

Pennsylvania's list includes the NCE but not the NCMHCE, and New Jersey requires the NCE for both its associate and its full license.

In two-tier states the exam can change with the tier: Minnesota requires the NCE for the LPC and the NCMHCE for the LPCC, and Illinois requires both the NCE and the NCMHCE for the LCPC.

Some boards also accept the Certified Rehabilitation Counselor (CRC) exam, as North Carolina does.

Several states add a jurisprudence, or laws and rules, exam.

Texas requires it before you apply and again every renewal period.

North Carolina requires one at each license level and before each renewal, and Colorado requires a board jurisprudence exam for both the candidate credential and the license.

Florida requires an 8-hour laws and rules course instead.

Format, scoring and how the counselor exams compare with the social work and MFT exams are in the therapist licensing exams guide.

A master's or doctoral degree in counseling or a closely related field.

The board sets the credit load, and 60 semester hours is the current rule in many states: Virginia requires 60 semester hours with at least 3 in each of 12 core areas, Alabama 60 semester hours from January 1, 2024, with a 100-hour practicum and a 600-hour internship, and Illinois 60 semester hours for applicants from July 1, 2026.

Missouri requires 60 hours of students who enrolled from August 28, 2023, and Michigan of non-CACREP students entering from July 1, 2023.

The degree carries a practicum and internship with their own hour counts.

Virginia requires a supervised internship of at least 600 hours, including 240 hours of face-to-face client contact.

Florida's non-CACREP route requires a practicum, internship or fieldwork of at least 700 hours with 280 direct.

CACREP, the Council for the Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs, is the counseling profession's program accreditor.

In the states above it is one route rather than the only one: Virginia recognizes CACREP or CORE approval but does not require it, and Florida accepts a non-CACREP program that meets its credit, content-area and practicum rules, though for applications from July 1, 2025 that program must be accredited by MPCAC or an equivalent body, not unaccredited.

Why boards write accreditation into the rule is explained in CSWE vs CACREP vs COAMFTE.

Moving with a counselor license means applying to the new state's board.

Many boards offer licensure by endorsement to applicants already licensed elsewhere, and each writes its own test.

New York asks for five years of licensed practice in the ten years before you apply.

Florida asks for an active, unencumbered license, a passing national exam score or recognized national certification, at least two of the last four years in active practice, and fingerprints.

Tennessee grants licensure by reciprocity only to holders from states with a mutual agreement.

The full process is in moving states as a therapist: license transfer and endorsement.

The Counseling Compact is the other route.

On September 24, 2026 the Counseling Compact Commission listed it as live, meaning issuing and accepting privileges, in nine states: Arkansas, Arizona, Georgia, Indiana, Louisiana, Minnesota, Ohio, Tennessee and Wyoming.

Many more have enacted it, but enacted is not live.

A privilege rests on an independent license, so it is no route for an associate.

How the privilege works is in the Counseling Compact explained.

A counseling license never includes prescribing: counselors do not prescribe medication, whatever the state or tier (see can a therapist prescribe medication?).

What the license does allow depends on the tier.

In Ohio the LPC diagnoses only under supervision until the LPCC, and in Tennessee the LPC may not treat mental disorders until the counselor adds the Mental Health Service Provider designation.

Whether an associate may see clients without a supervisor is covered in can an associate practice independently?, and the line between diagnosis and formal testing in diagnosis vs psychological testing.

You apply to your state board directly, through the system that board runs; check whether yours takes the application and fee online.

The board checks transcripts, your supervisor's documentation of your hours and your exam result.

Several also run a criminal background check: Oklahoma has required an FBI fingerprint check of every new applicant since January 1, 2024, and Connecticut requires a state and national fingerprint-based check.

Fees and processing times are set by each board and change, so this page does not quote them; please check the board's own site, linked from your state's page.

Renewal cycles and continuing education (CE) differ too.

Virginia renews every year with at least 20 hours of continuing competency.

Alabama, Louisiana and North Carolina renew every two years with 40 hours.

Washington renews every year and asks LMHCs for 32 CE hours every two years.

Letting a license lapse can mean starting over.

In Arkansas a license lapsed more than twelve months must be applied for anew under the requirements then in effect, and in Kentucky a credential not reinstated within three years of termination can only be reapplied for under current rules.

Each state's page also links the board's license lookup, which employers use to verify a license.

Pay for licensed counselors is on the mental health counselor salary page, and what the role involves is in what is a mental health counselor?